Question: Gill fungus, how did this happen?

[solace93]

Hi all. Less than 2 weeks ago, my Leucy axolotl had a run in with gill fungus. I salt dipped her for 5 days, and put her back in the tank, and she seems to have recovered nicely.

Now, a week after putting her back, a different axolotl has a ball of fungus in his gills. I can't figure out what the problem is.. Is my tank itself infected? When I was feeding bloodworms, I would sometimes find fuzzy strays behind stuff, but I haven't fed that in a while.

Parameters:

Ammo: 0
Nitrite: 0
NitrAte: 30 (comes out the tap at 20ppm)
pH: 8.2
Temp: 62-64 f

I just moved them into an established 55 gallon 3 weeks ago, with a canister and sponge filter. My leucy immediately hated it and wouldn't leave the same corner for a week before she developed the fungus. I think the canister outflow was too strong for her, so I shut it off and only left the sponge running. Now she occasionally roams around like a regular lotl and seems to be doing fine after treatment. So why does my other lotl have fungus now?

I'm really hoping this won't be an ongoing problem.. Maybe the sand is too hard for me to keep clean. They were on bare bottom before. Anyway, thank you for any input!

 

[AxolotlChris]

Perhaps it's the pH? pH can affect the toxicity of ammonia, yours is at 8.2 which is on the high side, it should be around 7.4 - 7.6.

Check out this page: Axolotls - Requirements & Water Conditions in Captivity

 

[JM29]

Hi,

The salt bath may cure the symtoms, but do nothing against the cause.

 

[solace93]

Thank you both for replying!

Perhaps it's the pH? pH can affect the toxicity of ammonia, yours is at 8.2 which is on the high side, it should be around 7.4 - 7.6.

Check out this page: Axolotls - Requirements & Water Conditions in Captivity

I'm always worried about the pH being too high for all my aquatic pets, but I've been under the impression it would be okay in a cycled tank, as long as everything was stable. I dunno... I've been keeping lotls for 5 months with the same pH but it wasn't an issue until I moved them to the bigger tank.

Hi,

The salt bath may cure the symtoms, but do nothing against the cause.

Do you have any ideas what the cause might be?

 

[JM29]

Difficult to know exactly, but an excess of organic matter in the tank is a possible cause (rotten excess food for example). You said the new tank is always established but you don't give any datails about it (how long? with what animals?)

You found yourself a possible stress source with the too strong water flow and that's fine.

The pH itself is not a problem for axolotls since the Xochimilco lake has a value near 8.

 

[solace93]

Difficult to know exactly, but an excess of organic matter in the tank is a possible cause (rotten excess food for example). You said the new tank is always established but you don't give any datails about it (how long? with what animals?)

You found yourself a possible stress source with the too strong water flow and that's fine.

The pH itself is not a problem for axolotls since the Xochimilco lake has a value near 8.

The tank has been up for about 4 months with goldfish in it. All goldfish were treated for parasites and then moved so that shouldn't be an issue I hope. The lotls were never with the goldfish at the same time. There's now 4 lotls in the tank.

I'm leaning toward taking the lotls out and rinsing all the sand and rocks.. Maybe go back to bare bottom.

 

[xxianxx]

Read the fungus sticky i wrote in the axolotl general discussion section, it explains causes of fungal attack. Your tanks not " infected" , fungus is probably present most of the time, its wether the axolotl is in a condition to become infected which is the important factor.